About the Flu….
Before I came to Gonzaga last August, I was the Program Manager for the Public Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Program for the Eastern Region of Washington State. What that means is I worked with a group of very bright people who were tasked with putting together plans for, and educating our community about, things like a influenza pandemic. I also had access to national and international experts in public health, including those who had personally experienced deadly outbreaks like SARS.
Here’s what I learned were the very most effective ways to protect myself and my family:
- get vaccinated
- wash my hands
- cover my cough (cough into your elbow, not your hand)
- stay home if I’m sick
Pretty simple, huh? All that expert guidance and it boils down to some very basic things that we should be doing ALL the time.
Some other things you might not know:
The flu bug is most commonly transmitted when an infected person coughs or sneezes droplets out into a shared environment. Then we (the “uninfected”) touch a surface where this droplet has settled with our hand and subsequently touch our mouth, eyes, or nose. So, wearing a mask is really only most effective to cover the cough or sneeze of an infected person. It may make an uninfected person feel better to wear a mask, but it really doesn’t do much – especially compared to washing your hands frequently.
The vaccine for a newly identified influenza virus is not sitting on a shelf somewhere. Once a new virus is identified, it will take several months to develop all of the vaccine it will take to protect our large population. In the absence of a vaccine, it becomes really important to do things like covering your cough, washing your hands, and staying home when you’re sick.
Antivirals like Tamiflu and Relenza are used to treat flu. When you hear about the government distributing “stockpiles” of medications to the states, this is what they’re likely talking about. They are NOT a vaccine that prevents influenza; they are best used to treat somebody who has been identified as being in the early stages of influenza. And, they’re in limited supply.
Some perspective: 36,000 people die every year from influenza in the United States, and a quarter million die world-wide. Habits like covering your cough, washing your hands, and staying home when you’re sick are things we should be doing all the time.
For credible information about the swine influenza, visit the CDC’s website at http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu/